Faithful Til The End
by wicked ways
Summary: Just days after the end of Season Six, Faith makes a return. Alerted of her presence, the Watcher's Council finally decides to take care of the two-slayer problem they've got going on.
1. part I

This is rated PG-13 for language and very slight violence. Plus one crazy chick.  
  
Disclaimer: These characters are not mine, sadly. They belong to Joss.  
  
Note: I'm very new to this. . . let me know of anything I'm doing wrong, ok?  
  
For the fourth night in a row, the girl was talking in her sleep. Michael, the guard situated outside her door, shifted from one foot to the other. Just another crackpot, he thought to himself. He knew her type: tormented with thoughts of their victims, or thoughts of their capture, reliving it in their sleep. He didn't care.  
  
"Five. Sunnydale. Two . . . two . . . next in . . . witch!" As usual, her sentences were broken up, fragmented memories that only she knew of. Michael rolled his eyes and pulled a pack of Sweet Tarts out of his pocket. He only liked the yellows. Sometimes the greens, but today, he only wanted the yellows.  
  
He turned his head to check on the girl, inmate number 128025353. Idly, he wondered who was inmate number 1, but he didn't wonder for long. The pipe crashing on his skull halted all thoughts, and he crumpled to the floor in an unconscious heap, revealing the girl behind him. The fiery brunette girl; the girl they called Faith.  
  
~~~  
  
After she took out the guard and stole his keys and clothing, escape was easy. Too easy, Faith thought. There was no challenge. All she had to do was stroll down the darkly lit hallway with her head high. The other guards took no notice of her. If they did, they would realize that the prominently displayed nametag carried a picture of a large black man. However, the body inside the uniform was a brunette girl. But no one realized anything.  
  
"I can't believe I just strolled out of there," Faith said to herself as she walked the back roads of L.A. Her slayer sense kicked in, and suddenly a vamp jumped her from behind. She wrenched herself forward and then backwards, throwing off the vampire so he was flat on his back on the ground. "Haven't you vamps learned ANYTHING?" she said as she plunged a stake deep into his . . . stomach. The vampire writhed in pain and Faith grinned. "Don't fuck with me, honey," she said. The vampire, unable to speak, lay there. She just laughed and strolled away. He'd be dead by morning, when the sun arose and left nothing but a gossamer pile of dust.  
  
Unseen, another vampire vampire hiding ten feet away slipped backwards into the darkness.  
  
~~~  
  
Faith was awakened by a shot of sunlight directly on her eyes. "Shit ..." she mumbled under her breath. Three hours of sleep was way too minimalistic for anyone to be running on. She glanced at her watch. Make that two and a half hours. At least they were in Sunnydale. She gathered up her backpack, which contained nothing but a bottle of water and an L.A sweatshirt, both of which she had pilfered at the bus station. Some old person has decided to sit next to her during the night, and she shoved past them. Screw the world, she thought. Enough with that weepy, sorrowful, repentant bullshit. I'm back. 


	2. part II

They just keep coming and coming, thought Faith as she slayed her seventh vampire in a row. This is some gang. She was not a happy girl, as her plans for Sunnydale and namely, Buffy, did not include unforseen slayage. But hey, her life was on the line here and -  
  
Whoompf. A vampire (or three, it felt like three, was it three?) catapulted right on top of her body, and Faith felt herself hit the ground. This is gonna hurt tonight, she thought, but not now. She leaped to her feet and immediately began pummeling the vamp who had pinned her. The silence of the night grew defeaning as she looked around and realized that the other vamps had disappeared. She shrugged it off and turned, realizing that now she was utterly alone. No vamps. She took a cautious few steps toward the end of the alley, but stopped when a patrol car's sweeping headlights almost illuminated her darkened hideaway. Shit, she thought. It would not be a good thing to be caught.  
  
Faith turned around again and faced a wall of vampires. Seven thick, two deep ... this was gonna take some work. Suddenly, a pair of hands grabbed her from behind. Slimy, gross, crackled and dry hands. Ew. Two more appeared, and then four, eight, and ten. She was overpowered and outnumbered. Way outnumbered. One more set of hands brushed aside her hair and she heard a vamp growl, "Slayer blood is so sweet," before she felt the piercing tingle on her neck. Wow, she thought before she slipped into darkness, no wonder so many vamps exist ...  
  
The pain abruptly stopped, and Faith instictively put her hand on her neck. Bleeding profusely. That was OK, she'd knock off some Band-aids from the store down the street. Regaining her senses, and her slayer strength, she realized that the pain had stopped for a reason. Ten feet to her side, there was a battle going on. A vamp dueled with a human in a circle of ashes - man, whoever it was worked quick.  
  
The final vamp met its doomful end, and the mortal turned to face Faith. Slowly, deliberately.  
  
It was Buffy.  
  
"What. are. you. doing. here," she said in painstakingly controlled words.  
  
"Aw, B, can't even meet my eyes?" cooed Faith. Yeah, this wasn't the way she wanted to get reaquainted, and hell, Faith even owed Buffy her life, but what the hell.  
  
"Faith. I don't want you here," Buffy said, searching for words. Faith began to step towards her.  
  
"Tough cookies. Didn't Angel tell you, I'm good. I'm high-quality now, B. I feel so bad about what I've done," Faith said cynically, reaching out to brush her fingers along Buffy's arm.  
  
"Don't touch me, Faith. You repulse me. You disgust me beyond belief. You are the epitome of everything I hate. Sunnydale is my town. I've been here longer than you have and when you went all wicked, I stayed. Get out," Buffy spat.  
  
Faith recoiled slightly, but Buffy saw and realized that her words had an impact.  
  
"Heard you got a little sister. And a crazy witch for a best friend. Doesn't it bug you that you couldn't help either of them?" Faith taunted.  
  
Buffy felt no need for words. She slammed out a punch and a kick and shattered Faith's infallibility. Faith instictively kicked out her leg, but instead of it connecting solidly, a hand reached out from the darkness and grabbed her ankle. Faith immediately pivoted her wait in order to remain standing with her one leg. I feel like an ostrich, she thought randomly.  
  
Buffy was staring at the man who had stepped out of the shadows like she knew him. He knew her, at least. "Buffy. Faith. So good to see you again. I'm Christophe Miller. From the Watcher's Council." 


End file.
